Chapter Text
The first thing Xie Lian noticed when he woke up was the stench. Or, better said, the intense smell of sex, sweat, and alpha around him.
Rolling over onto his side, he groaned in discomfort. His body was hurting everywhere — between his thighs, his throat, his back, even inside… a certain area.....
Xie Lian’s eyes widened and he sat up in shock, one hand rushing to touch the back of his neck.
His usually smooth, slender neck, completely untouched and just slightly freckled from the sun, was sore.
It wasn’t strange, considering the deep, distinctive bite that had been planted over his scent gland.
Xie Lian stroke thin fingers over the mark, taking in faint traces from sharp teeth, and the lingering speckles of dried blood and saliva. Blinking dazedly, he threw a glance down his body, noticing the clusters of bite marks, hickeys, and bruises covering his chest, hips, and even his thighs.
“Huh,” he murmured quietly to himself, voice rusty and sore.
It seemed like he had been ravished by someone. Which made sense, considering that the last memory he had before blacking out was an urgent sense of panic due to his heat arriving early, his body unbearably hot and thrumming with lust, slick making his pants wet and uncomfortable.
Closing his eyes, Xie Lian tried his best to remember who could possibly have approached him during the beginning of his hazy need. He wasn’t able to recall any details, though, the only things he could summon into mind being big, strong hands on his hips, a warm tongue in his mouth, and the sensation of being filled thoroughly, again and again.
Xie Lian grew a little red and covered his face.
Being 28 years old and having gone through 3-4 heats a year since he was 16, he knew how needy he could be during the days of pure, animalistic lust. Although the length of his heats always varied, sometimes just a day or two, sometimes up to a week, he was aware of how insatiable he was throughout it.
Removing his hands, he glanced around the room he was lying in, and immediately recognised it as a hotel room, which made sense considering that he was on a business trip with the firm he worked for. The room was slightly different from his own one, however, so the person who had ravished him had either taken him to their room, or booked a new one. At least, he hadn’t been brought to another building, or even to that person’s house.
Xie Lian pondered for a moment, then crawled over to the nightstand and picked up his phone, which he somehow had remembered to bring with him. Squinting at the screen, he found out that it was merely the day after he had gotten his heat.
He frowned. It was strange for his heat to last under 24 hours… Was it possible that it had ended quickly because the alpha he’d been with had left him? Or had the bite been enough to satisfy his needs?
Whatever the reason, he was sore enough in his behind that he knew that he’d been fucked through it as well — maybe the alpha had lost control and bit him, and therefore left before Xie Lian came back to his senses?
Xie Lian stroke a thumb over his bottom lip, grazing the swollen, red skin.
Whatever the reason was for the alpha leaving early — Xie Lian wished he had some way to contact them, so he could thank them for being there for him.
His phone lit up, disturbing him from his pondering.
“Feng Xin,” Xie Lian croaked, then cleared his throat. “Hello!”
“Xie Lian?” the man sounded worried. “Did you oversleep? We’ve tried contacting you for an entire hour now!”
Xie Lian blinked, then glanced towards a clock on the wall. Apparently, it was already past 10 in the morning.
“Oh, uh,” he scratched his head, then laughed awkwardly. “That’s right, I guess I did.”
Feng Xin sighed, but seemed more relieved than exasperated.
“Okay,” he said. “You missed the first meeting of the day, but we’re on break now until our 11-meeting. Do you think you’re able to make it?”
“Of course, of course,” Xie Lian nodded even though Feng Xin couldn’t see him, “I’ll be quick! See you soon.”
They hung up, and Xie Lian got up from the bed with a groan, then groaned even louder as a clear, viscous liquid started trickling down his thighs. He had quite a bit of cleaning up to do.
💫
Taking a quick shower in the foreign hotel room, he thereafter picked up his clothes, which were nicely folded and placed on a chair, and got dressed. They were full of his needy scent, as well as an unfamiliar but soothing smell, presumably his alpha friend’s.
His wallet and keycard were placed on top of a console, so he grabbed them and his phone, then exited the room.
Locating the elevator, Xie Lian found out that he was currently on the highest floor in the building, about ten floors or so above his own one. He met no one on the way to his room, making him let out a relieved breath.
The second Xie Lian entered his own room, he got out of his clothes and pulled on a completely clean and fresh pair instead — just a basic pair of jeans and a white wool sweater with a high neckline, exceptionally fitting to help cover the brand new bite mark on his neck. He quickly brushed his hair as well, tying the top part into a bun and letting the rest float down his shoulders, effectively assisting in disguising the bite mark.
Swiftly spraying himself with a sweet-smelling perfume, created to hide scents from omegas and alphas alike, he then made his way out of the hotel room again.
💫
Xie Lian had just managed to fasten the name tag on his sweater, identifying him as Xie Lian - Customer service, Senior Advisor, as he walked into the conference room. He quickly spotted Feng Xin and Mu Qing, and walked hastily over to them, sitting down next to Feng Xin.
They both looked over at him, Feng Xin with a curious expression whilst Mu Qing scowled at him.
“Overslept, my ass,” the latter murmured, “you reek of sex.”
Xie Lian flushed bright red, bowing his neck.
“Is it… that noticeable?” he asked sheepishly, moving to scratch his neck before freezing halfway, putting his hand down again.
Feng Xin, the only alpha amongst them, moved his head slightly closer to Xie Lian’s.
“It’s not that detectable…” he inhaled softly. “I assume it’s mostly because we’re so used to your normal scent.”
“Who the hell have you been fooling around with, anyway?” Mu Qing hissed quietly. “We were supposed to eat together last night, but you never showed up!”
Feng Xin spoke before Xie Lian managed to come up with an answer.
“He got his heat,” Feng Xin murmured, Mu Qing’s cold glare shifting to him. “…I can smell it.”
Mu Qing narrowed his eyes.
“I thought it wasn’t time yet?” he inquired, “don’t you have a schedule?”
Xie Lian nodded, face still warm with embarrassment. Although his friends were incredibly dear to him, there were some things he didn’t enjoy talking to them about.
“I do. I wasn’t supposed to get it until next week.”
Feng Xin stroked his chin.
“Maybe it’s because of all the alphas gathered for the conference,” he murmured. “The amount of pheromones in this room could probably be enough to trigger your cycle.”
Xie Lian threw a glance around the conference room as Feng Xin spoke.
Truthfully, that might very well be the reason why his heat came early. There were about 50-60 people gathered in the huge room, everyone working for the same firm but on different levels. A bunch of the senior employees were alphas, as well, most of them hungry for power, authority and dominance — all of them typical alpha traits.
The three of them were sat in the back of the room, gazing at a table where the top executives were seated. In the middle sat Jun Wu, not surprising with his position as the firm’s CEO, with Ling Wen and Shi Wudu on each side of him. Next to Ling Wen sat Pei Ming, and next to Shi Wudu sat Hua Cheng, the newest executive of all of them.
Xie Lian let his gaze wander over them.
Ling Wen was sat organising some of her papers in front of her, whilst Pei Ming was leaning on an arm towards her, saying something with a grin on his face. Shi Wudu was talking with Jun Wu, the latter’s face neutral but friendly as usual whilst Shi Wudu looked less pleased. It was still nothing compared to the look on Hua Cheng’s face — he was sitting with his arms crossed, leaning back against his chair as he stared intently at one of the walls.
Then, his eye suddenly snapped towards Xie Lian.
Xie Lian blinked then quickly looked away, shyly rubbing his nose. He hadn’t meant to stare. It was just something about the young supervisor that had caught his attention.
“Regardless of your heat schedule,” Mu Qing continued, making Xie Lian look at him again. “Who did you spend your heat with?”
Xie Lian coughed.
“Um,” he rubbed his nose again. “…It’s complicated.”
Mu Qing shot him an incredulous look.
“How complicated could it be? What, did you have a threesome or something?”
“No, no!” Xie Lian waved his hands, then paused and added, “I think?”
Both Feng Xin and Mu Qing’s head whipped towards him.
“What.” Mu Qing glared at him.
“You think?” Feng Xin repeated, astonished.
It was at that exact moment Jun Wu chose to get up from his chair, tapping the microphone in his hand to get everyone’s attention. He hadn’t needed to, though, because as soon as he stood, everyone went silent.
“After the meeting we had earlier this morning,” his gaze flicked towards Xie Lian, who looked down, “we’ve had a brief discussion, and come to the decision that our next meeting will be held in smaller groups. This is to make sure that everyone gets the opportunity to voice their thoughts.”
He paused briefly, then read up a list of the different groups they had divided them into. The PR department with customer service and the sales department, the operations department with the HR department and the administration, and so on.
Feng Xin, being in the operations department, would be going together with Mu Qing, who worked in HR.
Xie Lian only recognised a few of the people he was grouped with — although he had worked in the customer service unit for many years, he hadn’t socialised with many of the employees in the other branches, besides from Feng Xin and Mu Qing.
They stood and got ready to go to each of their meetings, when Mu Qing poked a finger into Xie Lian’s chest.
“We are not done with this conversation,” he hissed, then marched towards their designated conference room.
Feng Xin shot Xie Lian a gentle look.
“Are you okay?” he asked earnestly.
Xie Lian nodded.
“We’ll talk more later,” he said, then smiled reassuringly. “I’m fine, really!”
Feng Xin didn’t look completely convinced, his thick, dark brows slightly furrowed, but he nodded and went to follow Mu Qing.
Xie Lian’s group gathered together in the room that they already were in, so he moved to the seats in the front, sitting down next to one of his coworkers.
“Oh, Xie Lian!” the man next to him greeted, and Xie Lian turned to meet Quan Yizhen’s gaze, “I didn’t see you earlier today!”
Not so loud!, Xie Lian thought, but he coughed and smiled politely.
“Ah, yes, I was…” he struggled to find an excuse, then rubbed his chin and smiled apologetically, “I was feeling a little under the weather.”
Quan Yizhen let out a huh.
“But you feel better now?” the alpha inquired, moving a hand through his curly mop of hair.
His posture was relaxed as he leaned against his chair, the back groaning slightly at the push of his strong, burly frame.
“I do,” Xie Lian said and nodded, turning his head to look at the other people sitting next to them.
Quan Yizhen was in the sales department — although he was a loud man with zero understanding of customer service, he was somehow extremely good at convincing people to buy their products. Xie Lian assumed that was the only reason why a man who used to call their customers and say “I don’t give a shit about your opinion on our prices — if you want real quality, you’ll buy our goddamn product!” wasn’t fired immediately.
In front of them stood Ling Wen, the leader of the customer service department, Pei Ming, head of the PR department, and Hua Cheng, leader of the sales department. The latter was looking as unhappy as he did earlier, this time staring at the employees sitting on the opposite side of Xie Lian.
Although Xie Lian’s heat was over, he still felt a faint, faint alpha scent coming from the three supervisors. Although there surely were alphas sitting amongst the employees as well, in addition to Quan Yizhen, there was something especially intriguing about alphas with distinct leadership roles, and the power that such positions carried.
He blinked then glanced away from the supervisors, still picking up on the small remains of restlessness in his body.
“Alright,” Pei Ming clapped his hands together and grinned. “Let’s get this started! This meeting is mainly about your work conditions. We want to hear your opinions about what is good, what could be better, what is bad, and so on,” he made a hand gesture as he spoke, then turned towards Ling Wen. “Will you talk us through it, Ling Wen?”
The latter nodded, then grabbed a stack of papers from a pile behind her and started listing the different categories the employees were to evaluate.
Xie Lian found himself drifting off.
He was still sore and tired after whatever he had been doing all night, his ass aching and his back stiff. The bite mark was making itself noticeable as well, slightly pulsating beneath the neckline of his shirt.
Uncomfortable, he shifted on the chair, glancing towards the supervisors again.
Ling Wen was talking, occasionally pausing to let someone else express their opinion. Pei Ming was nodding as she spoke, his gaze traveling down her body sometimes before catching himself and looking away, a small smirk on his lips.
Hua Cheng… He was still looking bored out of his mind, arms crossed as he leaned against the table behind them. He was slightly frowning, eye fastened on the floor in front of him.
Xie Lian used the opportunity to take a closer look at the man, his eyes moving from the sleek, dark sneakers he was wearing to the tight, black jeans; the dark denim shirt hugging broad, strong shoulders; the shortcut, dark hair; the eyepatch covering one of his eyes, the other grey, fierce eye suddenly staring directly at—
Staring directly at him.
Xie Lian flushed, embarrassed that he was caught gawking, and shifted his gaze to Ling Wen again.
He could still see Hua Cheng in his peripheral view, though. It seemed like he had slightly tilted his head, looking in Xie Lian’s direction.
Probably wondering why one of the customer service-employees had been checking him out.
Not that Xie Lian had been doing that! He wasn’t that kind of guy.
He was just… fascinated by Hua Cheng, per se.
Xie Lian fiddled with his hands.
He had been working for the firm, H-VEN, for years. Although he was neither the most effective nor the most talented employee, he had somehow kept his position as an advisor for their customer service branch. No one else in the department had worked there as long as he had, and neither did anyone wish to. Evidently, not many people enjoyed getting yelled at by people who got upset by having their product break when they used it incorrectly, or for needing extremely slow and detailed explanations of how the product was to be used.
Xie Lian didn’t mind. If people were yelling at him — well, everyone had bad days sometimes. If elderly people needed two hours of his time to make their product work, then of course Xie Lian would be happy to help.
Somehow, the positive feedback from the clients had been brought to Ling Wen’s attention, so Xie Lian had after a while been promoted to a senior advisor instead of a regular advisor. There wasn’t really any difference, except for a slightly better pay and less disdain from the people on the levels above him.
Xie Lian rubbed his chin as Ling Wen kept on speaking.
The reason why he was so fascinated by Hua Cheng was because the man had only worked for H-VEN for half a year, but had already managed to work his way from being a mere salesman to becoming the leader of the sales department.
No one had climbed the career ladder in H-VEN that quickly before.
Although Xie Lian had never worked with the man himself, he’d still heard stories from his colleagues. Stories of how harsh Hua Cheng could be, how demanding he was, the huge amount of work they had to go through every day.
It was obvious why Hua Cheng had been promoted, though — H-VEN had never sold as much as they did now. The ruthless workload combined with the considerably more effective routines that Hua Cheng had implemented truly made its worth noticeable as H-VEN kept growing, both nationally and internationally.
Sighing silently, Xie Lian glanced at the clock on the wall, and shifted once more on the chair.
Hua Cheng seemed to have everything that he didn’t — cleverness, intelligence, a sort of cunningness that’d make a fox proud. And he was so obviously an alpha.
Every time he entered a room, people would turn their heads to look at him, noticing the innate superiority the man carried. He was never in a hurry, always walking at his own pace, his facial expressions lazy and so blatantly indifferent. Other alphas tended to steer away, whilst omegas smiled and tilted their head attractively.
Well, most omegas.
Xie Lian usually just followed him with his eyes, then looked away whenever he felt like he had been staring an impolite amount.
Thinking about the man, he quickly sneaked another glanced towards him.
Hua Cheng was looking at the ceiling this time, arms still crossed but his pose somewhat more relaxed.
“…Xie Lian?”
Xie Lian startled, looking towards Ling Wen who had just mentioned his name.
“Ah, yes?” he answered, smiling politely.
Ling Wen let out a silent sigh.
“I was just asking if you would mind telling us your opinion on the last question.”
Xie Lian blinked, his smile turning strained as his neck heated up.
“Ah, Ling Wen,” he scratched his head a little, giving her an apologetic look. “…Would you mind repeating the question for me?”
Someone snorted next to him.
“Maybe you should be paying attention,” the same person commented drily.
“I really should,” Xie Lian agreed, the corners of his eyes crinkling, “forgive me.”
Ling Wen smiled gently.
“I was asking about your thoughts regarding our team building trips, Xie Lian.”
“Ah!” Xie Lian nodded, then thumbed his chin as he pondered. “Hmm, our team building trips… Perhaps—”
“We’ll never get done if you’re going to take all day answering the questions,” the person from earlier interrupted, voice exasperated, “I think that—”
A loud bang made all of them startle.
Xie Lian looked towards the supervisors, where Hua Cheng had just slammed his hand against the table.
“Mister Xie,” the man said, voice deep and cold as he glared at the employee who had interrupted Xie Lian, “was speaking.”
“Oh, ah, yes of course, executive Hua!” the other man sounded distraught, “my apologies!”
“I’m not the one you should apologise to,” Hua Cheng said, unkindly.
The person made a noise that sounded somewhat like a croak, and somewhat like a squeak.
“Yes, yes—ah, my apologies, Xie Lian!” he said hastily, obviously keen on getting Hua Cheng’s icy stare away from him, “I am terribly sorry for my poor manners! Incredibly sorry! Please accept my sincere apology!”
“It’s alright,” Xie Lian said softly, then looked towards Hua Cheng and smiled, “thank you.”
Hua Cheng nodded, his eye roaming Xie Lian’s face before flicking to the ceiling again.
“Ah, as I was saying—going to say,” Xie Lian continued, then kept on explaining his thoughts about H-VEN’s team building trips, disregarding the fact that he had never even been invited to one.
💫
The meeting was finished an hour later.
Xie Lian still felt slightly dazed, strolling towards the exit whilst in his own thoughts. As he moved to push open the door, someone else grabbed it and held it open for him.
Xie Lian glanced up, then blinked as he found himself looking at Hua Cheng again.
“Oh,” he said, then smiled. “Ah, many thanks to Executive Hua!”
Hua Cheng was slightly frowning again, examining Xie Lian’s face before the corners of his lips curved somewhat.
“No worries.”
He shifted to let Xie Lian walk past him, then followed him in the direction of the hotel’s cafeteria.
Xie Lian could tell that he walked nearby, because the sensation of a powerful alpha close by was strong enough to turn his senses hypersensitive. His recent heat also made him extra wary of a weak scent emitted from Hua Cheng. It was hard to put his finger on what the scent was like — it was deep, musky and slightly bitter, reminding him of coffee in the morning and dark chocolate melting on his tongue; a somewhat spicy, yet comfortingly warm scent, like a blend of coconut and shea butter with an edge.
Xie Lian pondered as he walked, feeling a sense of familiarity connected to the smell.
His thoughts were effectively disturbed a few seconds later, when he almost walked right into Mu Qing and Feng Xin, both of them standing with crossed arms in front of him.
“Xie Lian,” Feng Xin said.
“We’ll be having that talk now,” Mu Qing continued, eyes sharply fixed on Xie Lian’s face.
The latter exhaled lightly through his nose, then smiled amenably.
“Then please lead the way.”
His friends turned around and lead him down the hallway, Mu Qing in front with his arms still tightly crossed, whilst Feng Xin moved to walk next to Xie Lian, gently touching his back.
Xie Lian could swear that he felt a burning stare from someone on the back of his head, but when he turned, he saw no one looking their way.
They steered him to a small, private lounge further down the hallway, taking seats on two couches in the corner of the room. Feng Xin sat down next to Xie Lian, whilst Mu Qing sat down across of them.
“Spill it,” Mu Qing ordered as soon as they had sat down, tone sharp.
Xie Lian scratched his head.
“Ah, well… As the two of you know, I got my heat yesterday.” He glanced at them. “…Unexpectedly. And, hm, I spent it with someone.”
“And that someone is?” Mu Qing demanded.
Xie Lian coughed.
“......I’m not entirely sure,” he murmured sheepishly, cheeks heating up a little bit. “When I woke up this morning, I… was alone.”
“But you’re sure you spent it with someone?” Feng Xin asked, head tilted as he watched Xie Lian intently.
Xie Lian flushed even harder.
“......I’m positive.” Rubbing his chin, he glanced out the window next to where they were seated, unable to meet his friends’ eyes.
The room turned silent for a moment as Feng Xin and Mu Qing grasped the implications of his words.
“Ah—“ Feng Xin sounded like he was choking. “OKAY! Okay, okay, I see! Alright! Okay!”
Mu Qing kept calm, although his brows had raised slightly in disbelief.
“And you have no idea who you spent it with?”
Xie Lian shook his head.
“Ah,” he suddenly remembered, “the only thing they left was—“ he gathered his hair with one hand and pulled it to the side, then slipped a finger inside the neckline of his sweater and tugged it down, angling his head to better show them the bite mark, “—this.”
Both Mu Qing and Feng Xin stood up immediately, then swore.
“They marked you!?” Mu Qing exclaimed.
“Who would fucking dare to do something like that!” Feng Xin looked furious.
The thing was that mating bites — that is, bites left on top of the scent gland on the back of an omega’s neck, such as Xie Lian’s — were permanent things. In your entire life, you can only get a single mating bite, there is no such thing as do-overs.
The alpha who had bit Xie Lian therefore had, at least theoretically, some sort of claim on him now, although they wouldn’t be able to enforce it without Xie Lian accepting the bond.
“We need to find out who the fucker is,” Mu Qing spat. “They can’t get away with something like this!”
Feng Xin nodded fervently;
“They need to take accountability for what they’ve done!”
Xie Lian scratched his neck, letting his hair down to hide the mark again.
“Ah,” he said, “it’s fine.”
Feng Xin sputtered. “It’s fine?”
“How could you say that!” Mu Qing added.
Xie Lian looked at his friends, taking in their agitated faces. He sighed.
“I really don’t remember anything from yesterday,” he said. “In fact, it might even be my own fault that I got bitten. For all I know, I am the one to blame for the whole thing.”
Feng Xin and Mu Qing stood silent as he spoke.
“If I suddenly got my heat and stumbled upon an alpha, it would be remarkably hard to leave me alone — especially because I wouldn’t want them to.” Xie Lian hummed. “I don’t blame them at all. I should’ve been more careful about my cycle, and additionally, I should have been prepared for an unexpected heat, anyway.”
He smiled faintly.
“But they took advantage of you,” Mu Qing said angrily.
Xie Lian made a wry face.
“The way I see it, it’s just as plausible that I was the one to take advantage of them — we really have no idea how I acted during my heat, or how persistent I was.”
Feng Xin folded his arms, looking deep in thought, his eyebrows furrowed. “I don’t like this at all.”
“We need to find out what happened yesterday,” Mu Qing said, “and who you were with.”
“So we can kick their ass,” Feng Xin grumbled, cracking his knuckles.
Xie Lian hurriedly waved his hands, trying to calm them down.
“No, no,” he let out a weary laugh, “there’s no need for that. If anything, I’d just like to thank them.”
His friends stared at him with incredulity.
“Thank—“
“—them!?”
Xie Lian nodded.
“My heats get particularly bad when I don’t have anything to, ah… relieve them,” Xie Lian coughed. “If they hadn’t helped me, I would’ve been in a great deal of pain and distress. That’s why I don’t think that they necessarily took advantage of me. Instead, they were in fact rather helpful.”
Xie Lian smiled sheepishly.
“And therefore I wish to find them, so that I can thank them.”